adrianchew

I got an '03 TL for a loaner today while my RSX was in for service. Gotta admit I was *NOT* impressed with the experience - a day in a TL only confirmed it definitely wasn't the car for me.

Goods:

Cabin insulation from noise is a whole lot better than the RSX. Much less bone jarring over bumps and rough surfaces. And the overall power compared to the SS RSX - the engine works much less hard to keep up.

Struts to hold up the hood - NICE! Engine bay looks really neat and nice too.

Bads:

It felt like I was drive a Buick/Taurus crossbreed. Floaty and detached, overboosted power steering at speeds IMO. The parchment interior cries Taurus to me - you definitely need all the extra fake wood grain add-ons to spruce up the interior.

The handrest kept opening on me (lousy catch to the compartment). The parking brake is crap - floor brakes suck! The steering wheel felt too big and fat. The sunroof shade felt even cheaper/lower quality than in the RSX. The seats don't have enough support (ok, so its not exactly built for twisties).

Trunk release - you can't do it any other way than that button?

All those gimmicky electronic features - I wondered how nice it'd be to have - but, in use - I think if a car had stuff like power seats as options - I'll opt to save my $$$.

Wing mirrors - umm - big car, small wing mirrors.

I'm sure there's a couple other gripes I'm missing.

Conclusion:

No TL for me. I wondered if I should have checked out the TL-S instead when I bought my RSX - but I somehow doubt if they could have done enough to make the car handle significantly different than the TL.

I was *SO* glad to have my car back at the end of the day.

Thoughts?

Davediego

I agree, a stock TL does feel extremely floaty and detached. Thats why you get springs and some decent tires and then it handles like a dream
Oh and my friend has an RSX, and its interior feels alot cheaper to me then the TL's. You probably had a broken armest, a working one shouldn't come open, and its a nice comfort to have. I agree that the TL seats aren't nearly supportive enough, but I kno the TL-S seats are better.

As for calling our car a Buick/Taurus cross.... thats pretty low man, I might was well call the RSX a Corolla clone
Oh, and a TL-P is faster then the RSX-P (stick even), and a TL-S is faster then the RSX-S

Oh one last thing... since the turning radius of the RSX is actually BIGGER then the TL's (dont believe me? go look it up) with a few cheap suspension mods, I doubt the RSX can even out handle the TL. So for me, RSX wasn't worth it. The RSX-S is a much better car in my opinion, but I think I would still take a TL-S any day

Davediego

Almost forgot, the TL and the RSX have the same mirrors

adrianchew

The same mirrors? :wow:

Either I must be going blind or something - cause the TL side mirrors are much smaller than those on the RSX?

LOL - RSX being a Corolla clone - my last car was a Corolla before this. :p

The TL steering wheel and stalks come right out of the Accord!

At least you confirmed my thoughts - the stock feel of floaty and detached - that was the *MAJOR* disappointment. Nice to know suspension mods can fix that - it would suck if you had to live with that feel.

bigman

Dont forget, some people buy the car for that feel. This is not the sport enthusiast car that the RSX is. This is an entry level cruiser with some performance. RSX and TL are on different sides of the spectrum.

Alexxx

What he said....
You can't compare these cars.... different categories

songoku

Really?? RSX has heated mirror, too???

adrianchew

Only in Canada.

Davediego

I've compared the two car's mirrors when I've parked right next to my friends RSX, and they looked EXACTLY the same. What year did the TL get heated mirrors? I havent noticed any controls in my 99TL, but maybe I missed them.

RandyL100

I bought an '03 TL-S and have an '02 TL loaner right now. Buick is what strikes me as well. If there had not been a Type-S I would not have bought an Acura... there is a HUGE difference in the two cars.

aepiua

Heated mirrors are controled by a little button next the to switch to move the mirrors.

BLEXV6

You should praise the lord that they gave you a new TL for a loaner. Most of us TL owners get a ****ty RSX.

miwa

bhahahahahaha.. .lol!

bigman

That was cruel yet awesome.

Also, i have a 99 TL and we also have a buick Century in the house. The acura out handles and out powers the buick leaps and bounds. Everything about the 2 cars are totally different. We even had a 98 regal gs which was supercharged and it still handled like crap and road like crap too. A tl may feel floaty compared to an rsx, and a tl-s(even though suspension is similar), but compared to a buick the thing feels like a ferrari. The regal and the century share the same platform and float around on their light steering all day. Dont even get me started with the Park avenue, that things is a nightmare in its own.

NicksTLS

This is one of the most stupid posts I have seen on this site. I had to reply becuase I could not believe this guys reference to a Buick. BUICK...please brother, get your facts straight before you post something like that. I am a proud owner of a TL-S... and I don't believe the regular TL is that far off from the S version... solid built, Honda know how, great fit and finish, etc...

It's clear you are under 25 years old and are not looking for this kinda of car. The TL didn't become the best selling luxury import by accident dude. It's value is the best on the market. The "S" takes the value meter to a whole new level. You can't find this level of quality in any thing below 30 grand. Oh, by the way... I thought the new RSX was a complete embarassment for the Acura name. Talk about cheap materials and stupid buttons! Maybe that's why I hardly see any of them around town. Hmmm???

neuronbob

Actually, compared to the Dodge Intrepid I had before my TL-P, the ride is firmer. Even so, I'd like to make the car a true sports sedan by making the suspension firmer, so see my mods list below.....will be installed by early June.

I would LOVE to have an RSX-S manual as a weekend car though. I don't care what people say it looks like, I like its looks, I think it's fast enough for me, and with some suspension mods would probably handle pretty dam well.

2007AcuraRL

I will add my 2 cents here since neuronbob directly above mentioned that his last car was an intrepid. My last car was a 95 intrepid ES with the heavy duty suspension. Compared to my 2002 TL-P, I have to say the Intrepid's suspension was actually better - and that came as a shock to me considering it was such a bigger car than the TL. There is no doubt i have to change the springs and sways on my TL and that kinda blows I have to do all that just to get it to feel sporty. The TL-S is clearly the only TL to get if you are going to buy one. I only had $30k to spend including the tax (total came to like $29980) when i bought my TL so thats why i didnt get the "S".

Now about the RSX.... i had my day in one as a loaner too. It was clearly designed for "today's youth" given the styling of the interior. There was absolutely no power from that whinny engine, and the road noise was loud as can be!!! Hey Acura, insulate the darn thing with 500lbs of dynamat will ya!!!

In the RSX-s form it might be fun for a teenager or twentysomething, but i am 35 and that noisy ride was no fun at all. Couldnt wait to get my TL-P back, with its floaty ride and all!!!!!

neuronbob

I had the base Intrepid with a bunch of extras (moonroof, CD, 8 speaker stereo with tweeters in the doors). When I bought it, I didn't have enough to spring for the ES and the R/T wasn't out yet (darn!) It was competent, but I felt the TL was better.

One of my justifications for the TL-P was that with the money saved by not buying the TL-S, I could do the things I would've done to the TL-S anyway...springs and new tires. Probably thought that way because I started lurking here long before I bought the car.

2007AcuraRL

I agree about saving the money over the type S for mods when money does count. Thats what i did. I figured I had about $2k left to spare if i bought the TL-P. Its not that i couldnt have gone all out for the Type S, but i had to draw the line somewhere on how much to spend on a car. $30k seemed about right at the time, considering i have plenty of other things to spend money on (house, bills, etc.) and i drive too many miles to lease a car so i bought mine outright. (leasing the type S is probably only another $50/month, so if you lease, get the type S!)
<p>
I spent the extra 2k on tint, the full underbody kit (bought it through Tim's site) trunk spoiler (got it cheaper from elsewhere), Compustar remote start and the new Pioneer DEH-P940MP head to use with my existing soundstream and PPI amps i pulled from my last car.
<p>
There are always tradeoffs, but IMHO the TL body is just too plain aesthetically without the body kit, so although the extra 35hp of the type S would certainly be appreciated, style has to count for something too. I saw some discussion on this board recently about whether to add a trunk spoiler, and somebody posted a reference to a Road and Track test on a mustang with and without the spoiler, and without it, the top end was 2mph faster, so that was the justification for the poster not getting the spoiler. I say give me a break... with all the Zaino and tinting and rims and everything else people are doing to their TL, style certainly does count. I had the body kit on for 2 months before getting the trunk spoiler, and it makes the car look longer and lower. Now i just got to give it a drop to get rid of the 4x4 look!

adrianchew

Ok - I checked out wing mirrors - older TLs have wing mirrors that are the same as the RSX - these are the ones with the older style Acura rims with the black line in the middle of the spokes. The newer TLs (including TL-S) have a flatter, more squarish wing mirror (seems like a downgrade if you ask me - is this when they added the auto-tilt in reverse?).

As for an apple to apple comparison - the Infiniti G35 should take a chunk of TL sales IMO - although the sticker price will be higher with the same gadgets included. But you'd have to really compare it to a TL-S... and the $2k or so price differential (similar setup) shouldn't be enough savings to influence the decision compared to the merits of either vehicle.

sssick

In 2002 they changed the mirros shape to reduce wind noise.

scole

It is clear that some people haven't driven a Buick lately. The TL is floaty compared to a pure sports car. But, compared to the suspension of a Buick or an Avalon, the TL is stiff. The TL is exactly what it is meant to be, a luxury, sport hybrid. With some sight mods it can be changed to pure luxury or pure sport. When I bought mine the dealer said this is the only car he has ever seen that sells to ages ranging from 20-70. That fact describes the car all together.